Sometimes there was no transportation other than his own two feet. So John Hockett walked to his drug treatments, to his counseling, and to his work. The Alabama Drug Court had provided him an opportunity to get his act together and he was not about to blow this, perhaps his only, chance. Sometimes he walked all the way from Walnut Hill to Atmore, or from Flomaton to Brewton. It wasn’t easy.
“It’s a wonderful testament to the dedication he had to his recovery,” said Judge Bradley Byrne, the overseer of Escambia County’s drug court. Byrne said Hockett has shown a huge change in attitude during his time in the program. “When he came in here he was really still a teenager,” Byrne said. “Now he’s a man.”
John Hockett and two others “graduated” from the Drug Court on the National Drug Court Commencement day, which also celebrates 20 years since the first drug court was begun down in Miami. There are now 2300 drug courts in the United States.
Christopher Jay also lacked transportation, but where there is a will, there is a way, and he made it to his drug court obligations and to work. “We have noticed a maturity in him,” Byrne said. “One of the things he mentioned about himself is that he thought about relapse, but the reason he didn’t is that he was thinking about his kids.”
The third graduate was Alice Grantham. She began drug court in January 2008 and during the program she never tested positive for drugs or alcohol at any time. Byrne said that her goal was the restoration of her family.“She’s able to be the kind of mother she wants to be,” he said. “The change has been remarkable. It’s a great gift to her family.”
The graduates received a document rewarding their success, but most important of all, they all received the dismissal of their drug cases. Here are three more who add to the higher success rate in kicking the drug abuse habit. 60-80 percent of those who leave prison re-offend within a year, and 40 percent of those on probation do so. In contrast, only 17 percent of those who go through drug court re-offend. It changes their lives.
Drug court is intended to be a one year program, although sometimes it lasts longer if the participants have to re-start because they fail. The program is an accountability system of counseling, treatment and random drug testing which diverts drug offenders from jail and helps them to get their lives back on track. A slip-up that makes them fail a drug test may land them in jail for a short time.
Way to go, Escambia County, and your three graduates.
